No, this does not make Google evil. Like any company, they have to protect their trademark, or they risk losing it. If some other company can show that people are using the term Google generically (not referring to Google itself), that Google knew about this and did not take action to prevent it, then they can challenge the trademark.
I've never been a big fan of diet sodas, but I discovered that the additional flavors in diet cherry coke and diet vanilla coke (now diet black-cherry vanilla coke) help mask the "diet" flavor that I disliked so much. Now I can happily gulp down 6 in rapid succession, and no longer worry about the calories. Besides, it takes years to develop cancer.
Like almost everything, I find the best way to find good quality podcasts is from friend suggestions. On that note, may I suggest RadioTiki to everyone... by far the funniest podcast I listen to. In fact, they're doing a show tonight!
As I understand it, you still need to distribute the source code. From the license:
You may copy and distribute the Library (or a portion or derivative of it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange.
One of the nice thing about scientific theories are they can be modified. If a portion of a theory is proven wrong, it can be adapted, mutated, or removed in order to bring the theory in line with observations. Generally speaking, religions are less maleable when it comes to incorporating new information. That's one of the reasons I like Hindu's, they are very flexible. "Hmm, you say this Christ fellow was born of a virgin, and had magical abilities? Must be another incarnation of Krishna!"
I would say that MySQL does have a dog in this fight, one that's very important to them. I think that a lot of people don't understand MySQL's dual-licensing strategy. It's really quite simply: release under the GPL, and all the hobbyists, small companies, etc., are going to use, learn, and (possiblly) love your product. When those same people go to release a commercial product, they can still use the same product that they already know, but can obtain a commercial license to distribute it.
It's not that MySQL doesn't think they can't make money from a GPL'd product - they simply see that there is a market for both GPL and commercial software, and some people actually buy both.
Of course, that being said, I use Postgres, because it conforms to standards in one key area: it's not case sensitive.
Obviously he's never heard of BusyBox, or seen the list of products which run it. Or the list of products which run it without giving it credit. While some companies certainly seem to enjoy using F/OSS and giving credit where credit is due, others seem to have no problem ripping off the work others have done, atleast when they don't think they'll get caught.
A good point was made on GrokLaw the other day: it's easy for commercial companies to make sure that none of their code has made it's way into F/OSS, but it's monumently harder for members of the open source community to make sure none of their code is being misused in commercial software and/or products.
The government decides to start tracking all vehicles, and then dump that information into a database. They then use their new Super-MATRIX system to go through all the records of everyone, car movements, credit card purchases, political associations, etc. The system discovers that several people have bought rifles, and drove to a certain remote location. An hour later, a team of heavily armed feds bust down the door, ready to arrest the "militant rebels" they were expecting. Instead they find a hunting party. Maybe someone gets spooked, starts shooting, and people die. No biggie right, all for national security and safer roads.
I'm all for safer roads, but the current administration makes me question everything the government does at least twice.
Having played DAoC and SWG in the past, I know it can be a pain to try and coordinate you and all your friends playing on the same "shard". By having everyone playing in the same world, you eleminate that issue, which would certainly be appetizing for those who enjoy playing with friends.
That's what many subscribers are saying. It appears SOE/LucasArts didn't think that the game would be popular, so everything is totally bogged down right now. The website/forums are iffy at best, new users are taking hours to register the game. Things are in a pretty horrible state right now. Just more evidence supporting the "DON'T PLAY THIS GAME YET" advice.
As a beta tester for SWG, my advice to everyone is to wait a month, AT LEAST, before trying this game.
1) A lot of people have been saying it, and believe it or not, it's true: This game is not ready for release. Can you play it and have fun? Yes. But there are innumerable problems that should have delayed release for a few weeks at least. These include stability issues (they just got to 1 day of uptime in the last 2 weeks), class/balancing issues (many have not been tested thoroughly), and, of course, bugs. I know that any MMO that's released, or any game for that matter, is going to have bugs. SWG just seems to have a large number, including several that have been around for weeks without being fixed.
2) The price! $15/month is, IMHO, outrageous. SOE feels that because their game is "Star Wars", that intitles them to charge more than other MMO's. I think we, as consumers, need to send the message that this is not true. Unfortunately, there's enough Star Wars zealots out there that I think they will never get this message.
Is it a waste of time to go out and buy this game right now? Absolutely not. It is fun to play, as long as you keep one caveat in mind: it's not quite done yet. This was easy to do in Beta, especially since I didn't have to pay for it (except for the cd's, and shipping). Be prepared for a game that's going to go through many bug fixes and balancing adjustments in the first couple months.
Grr, Arg. I try to be witty, original, but then Sprint screws up my internet connection, I'm 5 minutes behind, and have the Redundant post. Sorry for the rant. I've had it up to here (6" above my head) with Sprint.
I'm actually in the process of building a computer for my mom right now. I used Price Watch to get the best prices on motherboards and processors, and found that NewEgg had the best prices. Generally I try to buy from only 1 or 2 places, to reduce shipping costs.
Also, Sysopt has a great site with user reviews of products, if you're not quite sure about X-brand cd-writers, or the newest NVidia video card.
I think the appeal of playing a MMORPG in the Star Wars universe is the chance for people to "exist" there for longer than 2 hours at a time. The movies are great (okay, 3 great ones), but there's no interaction, no involvement, it's just storytelling. Galaxies will give fans a chance to live in that world longer, to interact with characters and species not seen in the movies because 1) there wasn't enough time to include EVERYTHING, or 2) it's another human being, with their own biases, ideas, reactions, etc. that make them new and interesting. The Galaxy is not filled with Luke Skywalkers and Han Solos, it's filled with Greedos and Uncle Owens.
Perhaps Galaxies players may not be Luke Skywalker, or Han, or Vader, but that doesn't mean that can't play a significant role in the game. As a DAoC player, I've seen how the leadership of a few can turn the tides very easily.
As to interaction with other people online, it sounds like you've had some bad experiences. I've had my share of 10 y.o.'s on CS, but for the most part I enjoy interacting with the other players. Especially in DAoC, I play on a role-playing server, so most of the players are serious about the game, and are a lot of fun to group with. Guilds and Friends Lists allow me to talk to and fight with people that I've met before, and actually build up relationships.
Lastly, I'd just like to say that I'm VERY excited about this game. I've been telling everyone I know about it. WHY I'm excited is not because it's Star Wars, at least not just because of that. It's definitely an attractive feature, but that alone wouldn't get me to buy the game, let alone pay monthly fees. What's intrigued me
is the game play, or at least how they describe it. I think it sounds a new approach (at least new to me), and I think there's a definite potential. But like someone else said, we won't know until the game comes out. Until then I'll remain hopeful.
I'm by no means an expert, not even close. I read a book
The Elegent Universe
about string theory and such, and the book refers to branes as the different shapes that vibrating strings make up. The article says branes are the different floating universes. Am I wrong, are they wrong, refering to different things, anyone know?
Slashdot Mirror
No, this does not make Google evil. Like any company, they have to protect their trademark, or they risk losing it. If some other company can show that people are using the term Google generically (not referring to Google itself), that Google knew about this and did not take action to prevent it, then they can challenge the trademark.
I've never been a big fan of diet sodas, but I discovered that the additional flavors in diet cherry coke and diet vanilla coke (now diet black-cherry vanilla coke) help mask the "diet" flavor that I disliked so much. Now I can happily gulp down 6 in rapid succession, and no longer worry about the calories. Besides, it takes years to develop cancer.
Like almost everything, I find the best way to find good quality podcasts is from friend suggestions. On that note, may I suggest RadioTiki to everyone... by far the funniest podcast I listen to. In fact, they're doing a show tonight!
I think you're thinking of Scottie... Scottie Chapman I'm a Kari man myself though.
As I understand it, you still need to distribute the source code. From the license:
You may copy and distribute the Library (or a portion or derivative of it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange.
One of the nice thing about scientific theories are they can be modified. If a portion of a theory is proven wrong, it can be adapted, mutated, or removed in order to bring the theory in line with observations. Generally speaking, religions are less maleable when it comes to incorporating new information. That's one of the reasons I like Hindu's, they are very flexible. "Hmm, you say this Christ fellow was born of a virgin, and had magical abilities? Must be another incarnation of Krishna!"
I would say that MySQL does have a dog in this fight, one that's very important to them. I think that a lot of people don't understand MySQL's dual-licensing strategy. It's really quite simply: release under the GPL, and all the hobbyists, small companies, etc., are going to use, learn, and (possiblly) love your product. When those same people go to release a commercial product, they can still use the same product that they already know, but can obtain a commercial license to distribute it.
It's not that MySQL doesn't think they can't make money from a GPL'd product - they simply see that there is a market for both GPL and commercial software, and some people actually buy both.
Of course, that being said, I use Postgres, because it conforms to standards in one key area: it's not case sensitive.
Obviously he's never heard of BusyBox, or seen the list of products which run it. Or the list of products which run it without giving it credit. While some companies certainly seem to enjoy using F/OSS and giving credit where credit is due, others seem to have no problem ripping off the work others have done, atleast when they don't think they'll get caught.
A good point was made on GrokLaw the other day: it's easy for commercial companies to make sure that none of their code has made it's way into F/OSS, but it's monumently harder for members of the open source community to make sure none of their code is being misused in commercial software and/or products.
Picture this scenario:
The government decides to start tracking all vehicles, and then dump that information into a database. They then use their new Super-MATRIX system to go through all the records of everyone, car movements, credit card purchases, political associations, etc. The system discovers that several people have bought rifles, and drove to a certain remote location. An hour later, a team of heavily armed feds bust down the door, ready to arrest the "militant rebels" they were expecting. Instead they find a hunting party. Maybe someone gets spooked, starts shooting, and people die. No biggie right, all for national security and safer roads.
I'm all for safer roads, but the current administration makes me question everything the government does at least twice.
Having played DAoC and SWG in the past, I know it can be a pain to try and coordinate you and all your friends playing on the same "shard". By having everyone playing in the same world, you eleminate that issue, which would certainly be appetizing for those who enjoy playing with friends.
I recommend one change though -- Lucas should replace whatever actor played the Emperor in ESB, and stick in Ian McDiarmid instead.
Good call, except it actually was Ian McDiarmid.
I just posted my signiture on the petition, looks like there's now over 34,000, double what was reported in the Slashback.
That's what many subscribers are saying. It appears SOE/LucasArts didn't think that the game would be popular, so everything is totally bogged down right now. The website/forums are iffy at best, new users are taking hours to register the game. Things are in a pretty horrible state right now. Just more evidence supporting the "DON'T PLAY THIS GAME YET" advice.
As a beta tester for SWG, my advice to everyone is to wait a month, AT LEAST, before trying this game.
1) A lot of people have been saying it, and believe it or not, it's true: This game is not ready for release. Can you play it and have fun? Yes. But there are innumerable problems that should have delayed release for a few weeks at least. These include stability issues (they just got to 1 day of uptime in the last 2 weeks), class/balancing issues (many have not been tested thoroughly), and, of course, bugs. I know that any MMO that's released, or any game for that matter, is going to have bugs. SWG just seems to have a large number, including several that have been around for weeks without being fixed.
2) The price! $15/month is, IMHO, outrageous. SOE feels that because their game is "Star Wars", that intitles them to charge more than other MMO's. I think we, as consumers, need to send the message that this is not true. Unfortunately, there's enough Star Wars zealots out there that I think they will never get this message.
Is it a waste of time to go out and buy this game right now? Absolutely not. It is fun to play, as long as you keep one caveat in mind: it's not quite done yet. This was easy to do in Beta, especially since I didn't have to pay for it (except for the cd's, and shipping). Be prepared for a game that's going to go through many bug fixes and balancing adjustments in the first couple months.
Grr, Arg. I try to be witty, original, but then Sprint screws up my internet connection, I'm 5 minutes behind, and have the Redundant post. Sorry for the rant. I've had it up to here (6" above my head) with Sprint.
"I think we've reached the point where personal computers are as powerful as anyone really needs."
Yes, and 640k should be enough memeory for anybody.
Also, Sysopt has a great site with user reviews of products, if you're not quite sure about X-brand cd-writers, or the newest NVidia video card.
Seconds half of 2002, w/ the Space Expansion coming out in 2003.
I think the appeal of playing a MMORPG in the Star Wars universe is the chance for people to "exist" there for longer than 2 hours at a time. The movies are great (okay, 3 great ones), but there's no interaction, no involvement, it's just storytelling. Galaxies will give fans a chance to live in that world longer, to interact with characters and species not seen in the movies because 1) there wasn't enough time to include EVERYTHING, or 2) it's another human being, with their own biases, ideas, reactions, etc. that make them new and interesting. The Galaxy is not filled with Luke Skywalkers and Han Solos, it's filled with Greedos and Uncle Owens.
Perhaps Galaxies players may not be Luke Skywalker, or Han, or Vader, but that doesn't mean that can't play a significant role in the game. As a DAoC player, I've seen how the leadership of a few can turn the tides very easily.
As to interaction with other people online, it sounds like you've had some bad experiences. I've had my share of 10 y.o.'s on CS, but for the most part I enjoy interacting with the other players. Especially in DAoC, I play on a role-playing server, so most of the players are serious about the game, and are a lot of fun to group with. Guilds and Friends Lists allow me to talk to and fight with people that I've met before, and actually build up relationships.
Lastly, I'd just like to say that I'm VERY excited about this game. I've been telling everyone I know about it. WHY I'm excited is not because it's Star Wars, at least not just because of that. It's definitely an attractive feature, but that alone wouldn't get me to buy the game, let alone pay monthly fees. What's intrigued me is the game play, or at least how they describe it. I think it sounds a new approach (at least new to me), and I think there's a definite potential. But like someone else said, we won't know until the game comes out. Until then I'll remain hopeful.
- The Elegent Universe
about string theory and such, and the book refers to branes as the different shapes that vibrating strings make up. The article says branes are the different floating universes. Am I wrong, are they wrong, refering to different things, anyone know?